Ground electrical and electromagnetic studies in Koyna-Warna region,India

The geochemistry of the mafic xenoliths from Baspa valley of Himachal Pradesh, India has been investigated to characterize their protoliths on the basis of immobile elements, especially trace elements including REE. The mafic xenoliths occur within the Kinnaur Kailash granite (KKG) and their geochemistry show that they have tholeiitic nature with basaltic composition. Compositionally, they range from ‘depleted’ to ‘enriched’ MORB as observed on the binary diagrams of Ti vs V and Zr vs Ti and on ternary diagrams of Zr-Ti-Y and Th-Zr-N. Likewise, they match with various enriched or ‘transitional’ MORB types as evident from their Zr vs Nb binary plot. Their enriched character when compared with N-MORB, E-MORB and OIB rocks on chondrite and primordial mantle normalized plots reveals that it is intermediate to that of E-MORB and OIB. The geochemistry of the rocks suggest that the enriched components are probably derived by melting of a mantle source with E-MORB or OIB rather than due to the crustal contamination. The study carried out emphasize that the mafic xenoliths have developed in rift environment, and that they are not volcanic rocks of island arc related to subduction tectonics. It is visualized that the mafic xenoliths were formed as cumulate rocks from the tholeiitic magmas that were rising to lower crust levels in a rift environment, which at a later stage got entrapped as restitic material in the host Kinnaur Kailash granite formed in a collision environment, and propose a change of regime from rift related to collision environment prior to Palaeozoic period.